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Howard Lee’s campaigns for mayor, Congress, lieutenant governor and the state Senate, 1968–1992

The first Black mayor of a majority-white Southern town since Reconstruction.

In briefHoward Lee came into Chapel Hill politics in 1968 through the McCarthy and Hawkins campaigns and the town's stop of the Poor People's Campaign. In May 1969 he defeated Roland Giduz to become Chapel Hill's first Black mayor, and he won second and third terms in 1971 and 1973. In 1972 he ran for Congress against Rep. L. H. Fountain while staying on as mayor, and in 1974 he said he was finishing his last year in office. He left the mayor's office in December 1975 and opened his campaign for lieutenant governor in Chapel Hill in April 1976. In 1984 he ran for Congress again, filing in the 4th District Democratic primary against Rep. Ike Andrews and opening an Orange County campaign office on West Franklin Street. In February 1990 a district Democratic committee elected him to a vacant state Senate seat, and in May 1992 he and Russell Walker narrowly won the 16th District Democratic primary.

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8 works about Howard Lee’s campaigns for mayor, Congress, lieutenant governor and the state Senate, 1968–1992 are indexed here. 1 held at OCPL →

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Howard Lee in 2017
Howard Lee in 2017

The full story

In May 1968 Howard Lee headed a slate of Eugene McCarthy supporters that won the Glenwood precinct's delegates to the county Democratic convention, and local workers from Reginald Hawkins's campaign for governor formed the People's Reform Organization for Democracy, with Lee and Hilliard Caldwell as co-chairmen. PROD organized the Chapel Hill stop of the Poor People's Campaign: after the University trustees barred University facilities to the marchers, local churches fed about 250 of them and homes housed them on May 16, and Lee, the area coordinator, later called Chapel Hill the best organized stop in the Triangle. In the spring of 1969 Lee ran for mayor against Alderman Roland Giduz, and the two met at forums at the Newman Center and the Institute of Government, differing over the open storm drain on Mitchell Lane, a police review board and other questions. On May 6, 1969 Lee defeated Giduz by about 400 votes in the largest turnout for a Chapel Hill election to that date, becoming the town's first Black mayor; Rebecca Clark sent her son's bus street to street to carry voters to the polls. He took the oath at Town Hall on May 12 with the new aldermen Joe Nassif, Mary Prothro, George Coxhead and Ross Scroggs.

Lee won a second term in May 1971 over Jack Maultsby. In January 1972 he announced at Rocky Mount and Chapel Hill that he would challenge Rep. L. H. Fountain for the Democratic nomination in the Second Congressional District, into which Orange County had been moved, while staying on as mayor; he filed in February, stressing rural development, housing and health care, and UNC students organized Students for Howard Lee. In August 1973 he announced for a third term, naming the town bus system, public purchase of the University utilities and a housing trust fund for low-income homeowners among the work he wanted to finish, and that November he carried every reporting precinct, 5,001 to 1,109. In his State of the City message in September 1974 he said it was assumed he was finishing his last year as mayor, and he put off until spring a decision on running for lieutenant governor. He left office on December 8, 1975, after six years and three elections, handing over to James C. Wallace. In a farewell interview he named the August 1, 1974 start of the town bus system as the most significant day of his administration and listed a long-range development plan, town ownership of the University utilities and a town water supply as unfinished work. On April 14, 1976 he opened his Chapel Hill and Orange County campaign for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor at a noon rally of about 200 students in the Pit, backing the Equal Rights Amendment, calling the state's welfare system a form of enslavement and urging an end to the sales tax on food. Lee, mayor from 1969 to 1975 and later state secretary of Natural Resources and Community Development, resigned from the UNC School of Social Work faculty on January 31, 1984, and on February 3 filed for the May 8 Democratic primary in the 4th Congressional District against Rep. Ike Andrews. When Raleigh developer John W. Winters Jr. also filed on February 6, Secretary of State Thad Eure said it was the first time in the state's congressional primaries that a white candidate faced two Black challengers. By late March Lee had opened his Orange County headquarters in The Courtyard on West Franklin Street, citing a Calumet Research poll that showed him and Andrews tied at 32 percent; his Orange County co-chairs were the developer of The Courtyard and the Rev. B. Willis Wilson II of St. Paul's AME Church in Carrboro. On April 18 Andrews joined Lee and Winters for the first time at a League of Women Voters forum in the courtroom of the Franklin Street Post Office, which Andrews said would be his only forum in Orange County.

On February 1, 1990 the 16th Senate District's Democratic executive committee elected Lee, a former official in Gov. Jim Hunt's administration, to the state Senate seat Wanda Hunt of Moore County had given up on January 10 to take a state child support job. Lee said he would run for a full term in November and work on teacher pay, test scores and the coast. On May 5, 1992 Lee and Russell Walker, by then both state senators, won the 16th District Democratic primary over Margaret Pollard by unexpectedly narrow margins, Pollard finishing less than 500 votes behind Lee. Lee praised her organizing and said Black women candidates faced both racial and sex discrimination.

In the chronology

Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 24 dated events in the chronology →

  1. McCarthy supporters win three Chapel Hill Democratic precinct meetings Supporters of Senator Eugene McCarthy won the delegate slates to the county Democratic convention in the Westwood, Estes Hills and Glenwood precincts, challenging the party's local leadership. The Glenwood slate was headed by George W. Harris and Howard Lee, and Glenwood Democrats also called for a local open housing ordinance; Westwood and Glenwood passed resolutions for serious negotiations and disengagement in Vietnam. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: George W. Harris, Eugene McCarthy · Also mentions: Estes HillsSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 12, 1968, p. 1
  2. Hawkins campaigners form the People's Reform Organization for Democracy At their last meeting in the Hawkins-for-Governor headquarters on East Rosemary Street, local workers from Reginald Hawkins' campaign took the name People's Reform Organization for Democracy (PROD) and chose Howard Lee and Hilliard Caldwell as co-chairmen, with talk of working on the schools and seeking seats on the Board of Aldermen. PROD went on to organize the Chapel Hill stop of the Poor People's Campaign. People: Howard N. Lee, Hilliard Caldwell Place: 413 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Reginald Hawkins' · Also mentions: East Rosemary StreetThe Daily Tar Heel, May 15, 1968, p. 1
  3. Poor People's Campaign marchers stop in Chapel Hill on the way to Washington Five buses brought about 250 Poor People's Campaign marchers from across the South to St. Thomas More Church about 1 p.m.; local churches fed them, homes found through the churches housed them for the night, and Dr. Thal Elliott arranged a clinic for them at Memorial Hospital the next morning. Area coordinator Howard Lee said the town handled the group easily, and later called Chapel Hill the best organized stop in the Triangle. People: Howard N. Lee Place: St. Thomas More Church, Chapel Hill · Also named: Thal Elliott · Also mentions: Memorial HospitalSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 17, 1968, p. 1
  4. UNC trustees bar University facilities to Poor People's Campaign marchers After Dr. David Galinsky, Hilliard Caldwell and Dr. Thal Elliott asked Chancellor Sitterson on May 10 for the Tin Can and the showers of Woollen Gym for about 500 expected marchers, the Board of Trustees directed President William Friday and all chancellors that no University facilities be used by marchers in the Poor People's Campaign. Elliott said it was unrealistic to expect help from a University that, in his words, exploited Black poor people in its dining halls, and churches, the Black Student Movement and the School of Social Work offered space instead. People: William C. Friday, J. Carlyle Sitterson, Hilliard Caldwell Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Thal Elliott, David Galinsky · Also mentions: School of Social Work, Tin Can, Woollen GymSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 15, 1968, p. 1
  5. Howard Lee and Roland Giduz meet in an open forum at the Newman Center About 100 people heard the two mayoral candidates differ on the Mitchell Lane open storm drain, a local option sales tax, the Inter-Church Council low-income housing project and developers' seats on the Planning Board. Lee called the drain the town's responsibility; Giduz, twelve years an alderman, was asked why it had not been covered. People: Howard N. Lee, Roland Giduz Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Mitchell LaneThe Daily Tar Heel, April 25, 1969, p. 1 (OCR text)
  6. Mayoral and aldermanic candidates answer questions at the Institute of Government Lee, Giduz and all seven candidates for the Board of Aldermen took questions at an open forum. Sharp exchanges came over a police review board, which Lee said he had never favored, and over whether the town should pay to cover the Mitchell Lane drain, on which Giduz cited county health tests and Steve Bernholz answered that 'the ditch stinks'. People: Howard N. Lee, Roland Giduz, Robert Varley, Ross Scroggs Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Steve Bernholz · Also mentions: Mitchell LaneThe Daily Tar Heel, May 2, 1969, p. 1 (OCR text)
  7. Chapel Hill elects Prothro, Coxhead, Scroggs and Nassif to the Board of Aldermen In the election that made Howard Lee mayor, voters returned Mary Prothro and elected George Coxhead and Ross Scroggs to four-year terms and Joe Nassif to the two years left on Roland Giduz's seat, which Giduz had resigned the day before. The Daily Tar Heel called the turnout of almost 4,800 the largest for a local election in the town's history. People: Ross Scroggs, Roland Giduz Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Mary Prothro, George Coxhead, Joe Nassif, Howard LeeThe Daily Tar Heel, May 8, 1969, p. 1
  8. Howard Lee is elected mayor of Chapel Hill Howard N. Lee defeated Roland Giduz by about 400 votes on May 6, 1969, in the largest turnout for a Chapel Hill election to that date, becoming the town's first Black mayor. He was the first African American elected mayor of a predominantly white Southern town since Reconstruction. People: Howard N. Lee, Roland Giduz Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Lillian LeeThe Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1969, p. 1: Howard Lee Elected Chapel Hill Mayor
  9. Rebecca Clark carries voters to the polls in Howard Lee's mayoral campaign Clark worked on Howard Lee's campaign for mayor, sending her son's Greyhound bus street to street to take voters to the polls, and helped count ballots by hand on election night. Lee won the May 6, 1969 election. People: Rebecca Clark, Howard N. Lee Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Howard Lee: A Historical Mayoral Election
  10. Howard Lee takes the oath as mayor of Chapel Hill at Town Hall More than 140 people packed the second-floor room of Town Hall for the 7:30 p.m. meeting at which town clerk Roberts swore in Lee after outgoing mayor Sandy McClamroch reviewed his ten years in office. New aldermen Joe Nassif, Mary Prothro, George Coxhead and Ross Scroggs were sworn in, and Lee's first board elected David Ethridge mayor pro tem. People: Howard N. Lee, Sandy McClamroch, R. D. Smith, W. David Ethridge, Ross Scroggs Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: David Ethridge, Joe Nassif, Mary Prothro, George CoxheadThe Daily Tar Heel, May 14, 1969, p. 1 (OCR text)
  11. Howard Lee is re-elected mayor over Jack Maultsby Lee won a second term against three challengers, leading restaurant co-owner Jack Maultsby 1,999 to 1,352 with two-thirds of the vote counted on election night; NCpedia gives his final share as 64 percent. The same ballot narrowly approved a Chapel Hill-Carrboro bus system in Chapel Hill, which Carrboro voters rejected. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Jack MaultsbyThe Daily Tar Heel, May 5, 1971, p. 1 (OCR text)
  12. Mayor Howard Lee announces his run for Congress in the Second District Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee announced at news conferences in Rocky Mount and at the Holiday Inn in Chapel Hill that he would challenge Rep. L. H. Fountain for the Democratic nomination in the Second Congressional District, into which the 1971 General Assembly had moved Orange County. Lee said he would stay on as mayor during the campaign, and the next day he resigned as the state Democratic Party's vice chairman for minority affairs to campaign full time. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Holiday Inn, Chapel Hill · Also named: L. H. FountainSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, January 13, 1972, p. 1
Show all 24 dated events
  1. Mayor Howard Lee files to run for Congress against L. H. Fountain Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee formally entered the Democratic primary for the Second Congressional District by paying his $425 filing fee, challenging ten-term Representative L. H. Fountain of Tarboro. Lee, who had announced on January 10, said he would stress rural development, housing, health care and the flight of young people from the countryside; Orange County had been put in the 12-county district by the 1971 redistricting. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: L. H. FountainSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 21, 1972, p. 1
  2. UNC students organize Students for Howard Lee A campus group, Students for Howard Lee, held its organizing meeting to back the Chapel Hill mayor's run for Congress, planning a voter registration drive across the Second District and a self-supporting student campaign. People: Howard N. Lee Place: University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 18, 1972, p. 1
  3. Howard Lee announces for a third term as mayor of Chapel Hill Mayor Howard N. Lee announced at a press conference on August 29, 1973, that he would seek a third term, promising to put off other political ambitions until the term ended in 1975 after testing a race for lieutenant governor. He named the town bus system by August 1974, public purchase of the University utilities and a Housing Trust Fund for low-income homeowners among the work he wanted to finish, and later proposed a charter commission. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: University utilitiesThe Daily Tar Heel, August 30, 1973, p. 1
  4. Howard Lee wins a third term as mayor by a landslide In Chapel Hill's first November municipal election Lee carried every reporting precinct, taking 5,001 votes to 1,109 for graduate student Douglas Holmes, whom he had also beaten in 1971. NCpedia puts his share at 89 percent. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Douglas HolmesThe Daily Tar Heel, November 7, 1973, p. 1 (OCR text)
  5. Mayor Howard Lee says he will not seek re-election In his State of the City message at the Board of Aldermen's first fall meeting, Lee said it was assumed he was finishing his last year as mayor, while reserving the right to change his mind, and put off until spring a decision on running for lieutenant governor. He said the town was operating on the largest budget in its history without a tax increase and urged a commitment against sex discrimination in town jobs and a referendum on a new municipal building. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Municipal Building, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, September 5, 1974, p. 1 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, May 22, 1975, p. 3
  6. Howard Lee leaves the Chapel Hill mayor's office to James C. Wallace Howard Lee, whom the Daily Tar Heel called Chapel Hill's first Black mayor, left office after six years and three elections, handing over to James C. (Jimmy) Wallace; Aldermen Alice Welsh and Sid Rancer left the board the same day. In a farewell interview Lee named the Aug. 1, 1974, start of the town bus system as the most significant day of his administration and listed a long-range development plan, town ownership of the University utilities and a town water supply as unfinished work. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Municipal Building, Chapel Hill · Also named: James C. Wallace, Alice Welsh, Sid Rancer · Also mentions: University utilitiesSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 5, 1975, p. 1
  7. Howard Lee opens his Chapel Hill and Orange County campaign for lieutenant governor in the Pit Former Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee spoke to about 200 students at a noon rally in the Pit to open his campaign in Chapel Hill and Orange County for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, backing the Equal Rights Amendment, calling the state's welfare system a form of enslavement and urging an end to the sales tax on food. People: Howard N. Lee Place: The Pit, University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 15, 1976, p. 1
  8. Former Chapel Hill mayor Howard Lee files to run for Congress in the 4th District Lee, mayor from 1969 to 1975 and later state secretary of Natural Resources and Community Development, filed for the May 8 Democratic primary against Rep. Ike Andrews after resigning on January 31 from the UNC School of Social Work faculty. When Raleigh developer John W. Winters Jr. also filed on February 6, Secretary of State Thad Eure said it was the first time in the state's congressional primaries that a white candidate faced two Black challengers. People: Howard N. Lee, Thad Eure Place: Chapel Hill; 4th Congressional District · Also named: Ike Andrews, John W. Winters Jr. · Also mentions: UNC School of Social WorkSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 6, 1984, p. 1
  9. Howard Lee opens his Orange County campaign office for Congress Former Chapel Hill mayor Howard Lee, challenging Rep. Ike Andrews in the May 8 Democratic primary for the 4th District, opened his Orange County headquarters in The Courtyard on West Franklin Street, citing a Calumet Research poll that showed him and Andrews tied at 32 percent. His Orange County co-chairs were Carol Ann Zinn, developer of The Courtyard, and the Rev. B. Willis Wilson II of St. Paul's AME Church in Carrboro. People: Howard N. Lee Place: The Courtyard, West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Ike Andrews, Carol Ann Zinn, B. Willis Wilson IISearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 29, 1984, p. 2
  10. Ike Andrews, Howard Lee and John Winters meet in their only Orange County forum Congressman Ike Andrews joined his Democratic primary opponents, former Chapel Hill mayor Howard Lee and Raleigh developer John Winters Jr., for the first time at a League of Women Voters forum in the courtroom of the Franklin Street Post Office; Andrews said it would be his only forum in Orange County. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Franklin Street Post Office courtroom, Chapel Hill · Also named: Ike Andrews, John Winters Jr. · Also mentions: Franklin Street Post OfficeSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 19, 1984, p. 1
  11. Former Chapel Hill mayor Howard Lee is chosen to fill a state Senate seat On February 1, 1990, the 16th Senate District's Democratic executive committee elected Howard Lee to the seat Wanda Hunt of Moore County gave up on January 10 to take a state child support job. Lee, a former Chapel Hill mayor and official in Gov. Jim Hunt's administration, said he would run for a full term in November and work on teacher pay, test scores and the coast. People: Howard N. Lee Place: 16th Senate District (including Orange County) · Also named: Wanda Hunt, Jim HuntSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 6, 1990, p. 4
  12. Howard Lee and Russell Walker hold their state Senate seats in a close primary State senators Howard Lee and Russell Walker won the 16th District Democratic primary over Margaret Pollard by unexpectedly narrow margins, Pollard finishing less than 500 votes behind Lee. Lee, a former Chapel Hill mayor, praised Pollard's organizing and said Black women candidates faced both racial and sex discrimination. People: Howard N. Lee Place: 16th state Senate District, including Orange County · Also named: Russell Walker, Margaret PollardThe Daily Tar Heel, May 28, 1992, p. 5

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 2 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

The Courage to Lead: One Man's Journey in Public Service

Lee, Howard N. · 2008 · Cotton Patch Press

Howard N. Lee (born 1934) tells his own story, from a farm childhood in Lithonia, Georgia, through college, army service in Korea at Camp Casey and the move from Savannah that planted him in Chapel Hill, to his election as mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969 and his later run for Congress and years in the state legislature. Published by Cotton Patch Press of Chapel Hill in 2008, 199 pages with plates.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Mayors -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill -- Biography.

✓ Held at OCPL · BIO LEE LEE NC Cardinal Duke NCCU Durham CH Historical Society Library of Congress UNC

The mayor who kept his promise : Howard Lee of Chapel Hill, N.C., makes inroads on his town's employment, housing, utilities, and transportation problems during tenure

Poinsett, Alex, 1926-2015 · 1973 · Johnson Pub. Co.

Alex Poinsett's profile of Howard Lee, elected mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969 as the first Black mayor of a predominantly white town in the South, detached from the November 1973 issue of Ebony. The subtitle credits Lee with progress on employment, housing, utilities and transportation. About six magazine pages with illustrations and portraits, published in Chicago by Johnson Publishing.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Mayors -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill -- Biography.

UNC

My life of breaking barriers, building bridges, and making history

Lee, Howard, 1934- · 2021 · North Caroliniana Society

Howard N. Lee's account of his own career, published in 2021 by the North Caroliniana Society with the society award given to him that year, together with tributes from Angela Lee, Valerie Foushee and others. Lee became mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969, the town's first Black mayor.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Mayors -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill -- Biography.

UNC

Rebecca Clark : the emergence of an unlikely leader in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1941-1969

Demby, Katherine Elizabeth · 2010

Katherine Elizabeth Demby traces the public life of Rebecca Clark, an African American activist in Chapel Hill who lived from 1915 to 2009, across the years 1941 to 1969. Seventy seven leaves, written in 2010. Topics include African American women political activists in Chapel Hill, twentieth century town politics and employment at the University of North Carolina.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

UNC

Collected columns of Roland Giduz, 1953-1982.

Giduz, Roland · 1997 · North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Roland Giduz's newspaper columns from 1953 to 1982, bound in fifteen illustrated volumes. Most ran as Newsman's Notepad, in papers that included the Chapel Hill Weekly, the News of Orange County, the Chapel Hill News Leader and the Chapel Hill Newspaper. The North Carolina Collection made the copies from Giduz's own clipping file in spring 1997; an index is cataloged separately.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

UNC

Mayor Howard Lee

Barnes, Deborah H. · 1972

Howard Lee, mayor of Chapel Hill, speaks in the Pit on the UNC campus in 1972. Lee, elected in 1969, was among the first Black mayors of a mostly white Southern town. From the Deborah H. Barnes Collection.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

DPLA
Show 2 more

Howard Lee papers, circa 1949-2010.

Lee, Howard, 1934- · 1949

Howard Lee, born 1934, served as mayor of Chapel Hill and later in the North Carolina legislature. His papers, dated about 1949 to 2010, run to roughly 3,000 items in 7.5 linear feet, Southern Historical Collection 5609. Topics include African American mayors and legislators in North Carolina, political campaigns, twentieth century town and state politics, and the Democratic Party in North Carolina.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Mayors -- North Carolina -- Chapel Hill.

UNC

Roland Giduz papers, 1880s-1980s.

Giduz, Roland · 1884

Roland Giduz's papers carry dates from the 1880s to the 1980s and total 3,000 items in six linear feet, Southern Historical Collection 4601. Topics include politics and government in Chapel Hill, community life in the town and its social customs, the Chapel Hill Rotary Club, and the Occoneechee Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

UNC

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Picture: Howard Lee in 2017. CC BY 3.0. Photograph by EducationNC; via Wikimedia Commons

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